Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Okay, this will be a long entry... be warned :)
Now that I am back from a month-long vacation, I realised that it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be getting back to work straight away. I guess it's also because the trip was sufficiently long to `de-stress and make me whole' again.
Currently working on a new paper for a conference this year. Yes, I will be flying again soon this July to Harbin, China. But it will only be a short and direct conference trip. No stopping, rest or visiting.
At least it would not be as fast as Aya, who will be leaving for South Korea this Sunday for work for a week. And we (her mom, Emily and myself) are apparently more excited about the Korea trip than her! You see, they are either crazy about Korean movies, or nuts about Korean food. As for myself, I'm a fan of Korean Starcraft progamers. I'm always lurking around Youtube following the `e-sport'.
Anyway, after leaving beautiful Venice and Italy, we first reached London. But the next morning, the four of us (including my brother and his friend who is also visiting) took a flight to Aberdeen, Scotland. We decided while in Italy that we would do some travelling in Scotland. Spent 4 nights there, in various places. Believe me, after visiting Italy, it feels like there are no cities, with a long history or modern, that will match Rome, Venice or Florence. Not even London. Just my personal opinion though.
So instead of spending about a week in London, we decided to spend four days in the highlands of Scotland and only a few days in London. The photos here are from our journey (we rented a car for our entire trip) in Scotland, starting from Aberdeen in the east, through to the famous Glenfiddich (which means `the valley of the stag', I think) Scotch whiskey distillery in Dufftown and Inverness, then to driving along Loch Ness (oohh..), to the western Isle of Skye, south to Fort Williams, and finally south-east to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
Interesting name for a jam (due to its three-coloured texture, of course)!
At the beautiful Glenfiddich distillery... they are really happy for tourists to come. Free entry and an hour-long tour of the distillery, free sample of their Scotch whiskies. Ladies' washroom is amazing, with antique chairs and tables as well as a real fireplace and chimney next to the washing basins (according to Aya)!
Ruins of an ancient castle next to the Glenfiddich (pronounced with a hard ch, same as Loch Ness)
Inverness, a town at the river mouth of river Ness as it flows into the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland. The river flows from nearby Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal connects Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy.
Amazing scenery along Loch Ness, and no, we did not spot any monster!
Ruins of Urquhart Castle, overlooking Loch Ness. It's huge!
One of the many ancient burial mounds scattered across Scotland, apparently from the distant past before Chistianity.
Dogfalls, one of the bush-walking/trekking sites we visited...
Eilean Donan Castle, situated near the Isle of Skye...
View from Portree, the largest town in Skye, and one of the places we stopped for a night.
Prawns (or more likely scampi) we had in Portree...
The Storr (not the Malaysian supermarket chain, The Store) is a rocky hill on the Trotternish peninsula of the Isle of Skye. Its more famous landmark is `The Old Man of Storr'... it's that isolated towering rock facing the east.
We actually hiked up to just beside The Old Man of Storr. Took us about an hour to reach there and it's worth it. View up there is magnificent!
Another landmark on the Isle of Skye, the name eluded my memory. Scary place to be up there looking down. It's probably a vertical cliff for more than a hundred metres!
Another bush-walking on another day close to Portree.
Drove past Eilean Donan Castle again as we left Skye...
Another Loch...
We reached Edinburgh on the fourth day and spend one night there. That's Edinburgh Castle, which sits atop Castle Rock, a now-extinct volcano, overlooking the city of Edinburgh. The entry fee of 12 pounds per person (I think) is definitely worth it!
The city of Edinburgh... which is our last top in Scotland before taking a 5-hour train ride back to London.
We thought that this Scotland trip was really good. It's a nice transition from the ancient cities of Italy to the majestic natural sceneries (most of the time) of the Scottish highlands, aside from the wonderful traditional Scottish and English food such as Haggis , Black Pudding, Kippers and different ales. And strangely enough, out of four days in Scotland, there were three sunny (at least not rainy, maybe a bit cloudy) days, which is phenomenal as Scottish weather is well-known for cold, rainy days.
Anyway, I reckon this is the longest entry I've ever written on this blog. So I'll end here and hopefully, post photos of our trip in London another time.
Now that I am back from a month-long vacation, I realised that it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be getting back to work straight away. I guess it's also because the trip was sufficiently long to `de-stress and make me whole' again.
Currently working on a new paper for a conference this year. Yes, I will be flying again soon this July to Harbin, China. But it will only be a short and direct conference trip. No stopping, rest or visiting.
At least it would not be as fast as Aya, who will be leaving for South Korea this Sunday for work for a week. And we (her mom, Emily and myself) are apparently more excited about the Korea trip than her! You see, they are either crazy about Korean movies, or nuts about Korean food. As for myself, I'm a fan of Korean Starcraft progamers. I'm always lurking around Youtube following the `e-sport'.
Anyway, after leaving beautiful Venice and Italy, we first reached London. But the next morning, the four of us (including my brother and his friend who is also visiting) took a flight to Aberdeen, Scotland. We decided while in Italy that we would do some travelling in Scotland. Spent 4 nights there, in various places. Believe me, after visiting Italy, it feels like there are no cities, with a long history or modern, that will match Rome, Venice or Florence. Not even London. Just my personal opinion though.
So instead of spending about a week in London, we decided to spend four days in the highlands of Scotland and only a few days in London. The photos here are from our journey (we rented a car for our entire trip) in Scotland, starting from Aberdeen in the east, through to the famous Glenfiddich (which means `the valley of the stag', I think) Scotch whiskey distillery in Dufftown and Inverness, then to driving along Loch Ness (oohh..), to the western Isle of Skye, south to Fort Williams, and finally south-east to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
Interesting name for a jam (due to its three-coloured texture, of course)!
At the beautiful Glenfiddich distillery... they are really happy for tourists to come. Free entry and an hour-long tour of the distillery, free sample of their Scotch whiskies. Ladies' washroom is amazing, with antique chairs and tables as well as a real fireplace and chimney next to the washing basins (according to Aya)!
Ruins of an ancient castle next to the Glenfiddich (pronounced with a hard ch, same as Loch Ness)
Inverness, a town at the river mouth of river Ness as it flows into the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland. The river flows from nearby Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal connects Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy.
Amazing scenery along Loch Ness, and no, we did not spot any monster!
Ruins of Urquhart Castle, overlooking Loch Ness. It's huge!
One of the many ancient burial mounds scattered across Scotland, apparently from the distant past before Chistianity.
Dogfalls, one of the bush-walking/trekking sites we visited...
Eilean Donan Castle, situated near the Isle of Skye...
View from Portree, the largest town in Skye, and one of the places we stopped for a night.
Prawns (or more likely scampi) we had in Portree...
The Storr (not the Malaysian supermarket chain, The Store) is a rocky hill on the Trotternish peninsula of the Isle of Skye. Its more famous landmark is `The Old Man of Storr'... it's that isolated towering rock facing the east.
We actually hiked up to just beside The Old Man of Storr. Took us about an hour to reach there and it's worth it. View up there is magnificent!
Another landmark on the Isle of Skye, the name eluded my memory. Scary place to be up there looking down. It's probably a vertical cliff for more than a hundred metres!
Another bush-walking on another day close to Portree.
Drove past Eilean Donan Castle again as we left Skye...
Another Loch...
We reached Edinburgh on the fourth day and spend one night there. That's Edinburgh Castle, which sits atop Castle Rock, a now-extinct volcano, overlooking the city of Edinburgh. The entry fee of 12 pounds per person (I think) is definitely worth it!
The city of Edinburgh... which is our last top in Scotland before taking a 5-hour train ride back to London.
We thought that this Scotland trip was really good. It's a nice transition from the ancient cities of Italy to the majestic natural sceneries (most of the time) of the Scottish highlands, aside from the wonderful traditional Scottish and English food such as Haggis , Black Pudding, Kippers and different ales. And strangely enough, out of four days in Scotland, there were three sunny (at least not rainy, maybe a bit cloudy) days, which is phenomenal as Scottish weather is well-known for cold, rainy days.
Anyway, I reckon this is the longest entry I've ever written on this blog. So I'll end here and hopefully, post photos of our trip in London another time.
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